How a spate of suicides has a shocked the Greek nation as it prepares to go to the polls

By Reuters Reporter

PUBLISHED: 15:48 GMT, 28 April 2012 | UPDATED: 16:59 GMT, 28 April 2012

On Monday, a 38-year-old geology lecturer hanged himself from a lamp post in Athens and on the same day a 35-year-old priest jumped to his death off his balcony in northern Greece. On Wednesday, a 23-year-old student shot himself in the head.

In a country that has had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, a surge in the number of suicides in the wake of an economic crisis has shocked and gripped the Mediterranean nation - and its media - before a May 6 election.

The especially grisly death of pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself in the head on a central Athens square because of poverty brought on by the crisis that has put millions out of work, was by far the most dramatic.

Before shooting himself during morning rush hour on April 4 on Syntagma Square across from the Greek parliament building, the 77-year-old pensioner took a moment to jot down a note.

'I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life so I don't find myself fishing through garbage cans for sustenance,' wrote Christoulas, who has since become a national symbol of the austerity-induced pain that is squeezing millions.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136600/Greek-debt-crisis-S...